1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to program search apparatuses and program search methods for the same, and more particularly to a program search apparatus and a program search method for the same for searching a plurality of programs for a related program related to a viewed program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, broadcast stations have been providing not only conventional video and audio programs, but also supplement data that supplements the programs. The range, content, amount, and so on of supplements for the programs provided by the supplement data are increasing every year. In any of terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS/CS digital broadcasting, terrestrial analog broadcasting, and BS analog broadcasting, a program broadcasting schedule of broadcast stations is provided, for example, for eight days. In addition to the basic data appended to all programs such as the broadcast time and program title, other data is also provided including the program description, cast member information, program video format or audio format, such as whether it is High-Vision video or whether it is stereo broadcasting. Furthermore, various types of data, such as supplement data about serial programs, sequels, and so on, copyright information and information about the age limit for viewing, are appended to many programs. For example, see “Service Information for Digital Broadcasting System (ARIB, STD-B10)” Ver. 4.3, Association of Radio Industries and Businesses.
In addition to the above general supplement data about programs, broadcasting such as server-type broadcasting is expected to provide, and supplement data about specific portions (segment) of programs, such as goal-scoring scenes in sports and scenes in a music program in which a specific artist appears. For example, see “Coding, Transmission, and Storage Specification for Broadcasting System Based on Home Servers (ARIB, STD-B38)” Ver. 1.2, Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (p. 47-49).
By processing this supplement data in a receiver, the supplement data can be displayed as an EPG (electronic program guide) to support a viewer in selecting a program, for example. That is, broadcast stations as senders, or the receiver as a recipient, can process the program supplement data with a specific intention and serve the convenience of the viewer in various ways. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-325214 describes a receiver that uses a keyword in a program to refer to related programs.
In the receiver described in the above Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-325214, when a program consists of theme blocks aligning along a timeline, the keyword used for referring to related programs is one belonging to a theme block at the time of issuing a request by a viewer.
However, even when the program being watched consists of theme blocks (hereafter referred to as segments), the viewer may not necessarily recognize the structure of the segments, such as the range of one segment. A segment is typically defined by its start position and by its end position or duration time. Therefore, the viewer sometimes feels that the proposed keyword (hereafter referred to as a search word) is inappropriate.
If the viewer issues the request just after the start of a certain segment, a search word based on the segment of which only a small part has been watched is proposed. Therefore, the proposed search word may not be what the viewer desires.
In addition, since the search word is extracted based on the segment being watched, the search request must be issued when a scene in which a search is desired is displayed. Such a scene is often one that the viewer is interested in and definitely desires to watch. Therefore, the viewer may forget to perform a search request operation, or the viewer's attention may be distracted from viewing by performing the search operation.